Jim Caldwell says Detroit is an unusually good coaching vacancy

Posted by Michael David Smith on January 4, 2014, 8:47 AM EST

AP

Jim Caldwell isn’t making any secret that he’d love to coach the Lions.

Caldwell, who interviewed in Detroit on Friday, said after the interview that he thinks the Lions’ vacancy is better than the typical coaching vacancy because there’s a strong nucleus of talented players who can build a good team, including quarterback Matthew Stafford, receiver Calvin Johnson and defensive linemen Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley and Ziggy Ansah.

“This is an unusual situation because of the fact that you don’t typically walk into a place that has a talented quarterback, one of the best receivers in all the game and just a fine nucleus,” he said, via the team’s website. “Then a defense that has an extremely talented front four. I saw them up close and personal [When the Ravens beat the Lions in Week 15].”

Caldwell took the Colts to the Super Bowl in his first season as their coach, but Caldwell inherited a very good Colts team. The question for the Lions is whether Caldwell can take an underachieving team and turn it into a Super Bowl team.

Any man who keeps Curtis Painter on his roster because he believes he is a good substitute for Peyton Manning is a terrible judge of NFL talent and has no business being a head coach in the NFL. Please god keep him in Baltimore.

He could control stafford screw ups. I think ravens off would of been better, if joe wasn’t one demential with with streaks and out routes. Joe made a lot of bad throws this year. Can’t put that on coach

I’m not getting worked up over this. Caldwell s only the first candidate. Some of the best candidates cannot be interviewed (or even publicly express any interest in the job) because they are working for teams currently in the playoffs. Things will really heat up here in Detroit as those coaches’ teams lose and they then become available.

He”s right, I’ve been waiting for them to break out for 3 years now.
But.
Its not for him. He is the opposite of what they need. those boys would eat him alive, there is no Peyton on that team. No Harbaugh either.
Lion’s, open the check book, get Coughlin.

Fact is Jim Caldwell has had success at high level. He also continues to acquire job and still found success with new team. Same with Tom Cable who if he didn’t punch someone would have had permanent Head Coach position. I like Tom Cable at this point. He has proven to be a good coach. Caldwell wouldn’t be bad at all. It just comes down to how do you feel about him. Excellent coach under Tony Dingy.

Caldwell would do a good job with this team, Hey Ravens fans don’t forget this is the guy that saved your sorry team last yr when you won the Super Bowl and made that average QB look like Tom Brady…..how ungrateful, you guys deserve what you get going forward…….

I don’t know if John Madden at the peak of his coaching career could turn Detroit around.
Whenever I start getting depressed about the Falcons’ year, I remember that Detroit hasn’t won a playoff game in like 20 years. Somehow, I feel better by comparison.
It will take another five to ten years for the Matt Millen effect to dissipate completely.

15 positions open last year in the NFL , 6 positions open this year. combination of GM and coaches. what percent were minorities. when I last checked Whisenhunt was one of the 15 coaches fired last year..

caldwell should have a super bowl ring with the colts as head coach. not his fault the special teams awareness was lost during the onside kick to start off the 2nd half. not his fault P. Manning threw a pick 6. i think caldwell would do good in detroit. he’ll definitly take them to the playoffs.

Caldwell, much like Tomlin, road a team someone else built to a super bowl, and then rode that team straight into the ground. When Dungy retired, i asked myself why hire an offensive coach when you have Peyton? Didn’t make sense, the Colts offense was good enough, the defense needed some love. So the defense got worse and worse and in 2 years he was fired. Now he wants to go to Detroit, a place with a decent offense, and a bad defense…dejavu… What the Lions needed to do was back the Brinks truck up to Lovie Smith’s house. Schwartz was a defensive coach, and couldn’t fix the lions defense.

I think he would be good… ravens offense was good a year ago.. he lead colts to superbowl.. ravens offense sucks this year, but has alot of injuries… colts lost payton b4 it went down hill there?? Who would we pick up?? Please dont say sandiego oc… they never do anything.. they have good qb and offense and defense… stilll nothing year in and out….. give this dude a shot…. at least he has winning on his record….. im worried about df-oc cordinators…. we were not bad off there… we just needed another receiver and cb’s….. im worried….. hc are thin….

It’s never a good hire when the wanna be coach is begging the team for the job. Coach needs to have the upper hand, or he is going to get a bad deal. Then again if Detroit hires this guy they will ultimately be getting the bad deal anyway.

Don’t think that Caldwell is the right guy for the Lions job, but as a Colts fan I think he gets a bit of a bad wrap. He did get to the SB in his first year in Indy and had another playoff appearance so he deserves a little credit. The way the roster was built, terrible backup QBs, mediocre defense that couldn’t stop the run and was built to play with a lead, the team was in no way prepared for Manning to go down. Happy with Pagano, but I know it wasn’t his fault that the Colts collapsed.

I can’t imagine how happy fans in Chicago, Green Bay and Minnesota will be if Detroit makes this incredibly terrible hire. As a Colts fan, it was unbelievably painful to see him walking the sidelines as head coach. I am praying he stays in the AFC!!